Rio de Janeiro got an early taste of the thrills and excitement that lie in store when rugby marks its return to the Olympic Games next year after staging a marvellous international beach rugby event on the hot sands of the world famous Ipanema beach.

Under bright blue skies and in high temperatures in excess of 35 degrees, eight teams, four men and four women, enjoyed one of the most intense forms of rugby imaginable.

The Brazilian women’s side continue to dominate in South America and successfully defended the title they won here last year, remaining unbeaten over the two years, while the men’s event was won again by Argentina. Argentina lost their unbeaten tag after losing 5-4 against a strong Portugal side in the round robin tournament but managed to recover in what was a tough final in which the score changed several times.

Played over two halves of five minutes with a two-minute break, beach rugby doesn’t allow any kicking and as a result the action is fast and furious. Rolling substitutions are allowed and players are used in short explosive bursts.

The standard was noticeably up from a year ago and the eight teams were selected and sanctioned by their own rugby unions. Both Argentine teams, for example, were selected from their high performance programme, while Portugal sent a strong team that included Adérito Esteves, a regular on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series when Portugal were a core team.

Colombia’s women brought a young team with the future in mind and were coached by Laurent Palau, who will be back in Rio year having led the sevens team to Olympic qualification “We are working very hard ahead of what will be an incredible period for the game and our country,” the French-born coach said.

"The Olympic Games are going to be huge and it is great to have these kind of events as they help to promote the game to the people"

Baby Futuro, Brazil sevens player

Brazil combined its teams with players from the sevens programme and others experienced in beach rugby. “I have played a lot of beach rugby as there aren’t many fields to use for rugby in the area,” said the experienced Baby Futuro, who has captained the sevens team over the years since making her debut in the first-ever regional sevens tournament in 2004. “The Olympic Games are going to be huge and it is great to have these kind of events as they help to promote the game to the people. The more we promote, the better it will be.”

This weekend’s event was deemed a success by World Rugby’s Regional Development Manager for South America, Santiago Ramallo. “A lot of work is being done to ensure the return of rugby to the Olympics is a great opportunity to showcase the game. Tournaments such as this and many other events that the Confederação Brasileira de Rugby (CBRu) and World Rugby are organising help the promotion of rugby," he said

Brazilian rugby is on the rise with 11,000 registered players and 105,000 people engaging in the game through World Rugby’s Get Into Rugby programme. "We are growing the pool of players constantly and as huge as the Olympic Games will be for us in the country, we are planning beyond it, said Agustín Danza, CBRU’s CEO: “We had four hours of live television in what was an incredibly enjoyable tournament. These kind of events ensure the playing numbers continue to grow.”

To confirm the growing appeal of rugby in Brazil, the day opened with a Get Into Rugby activity with some 450 children being introduced to the game.

Photo: João Neto/Fotojump